Executive Summary
The Story So Far
Why This Matters
Who Thinks What?
Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, alongside a collective of prominent developers, has unveiled the “Trustless Manifesto,” a comprehensive declaration advocating for blockchain systems to prioritize mathematical verification over reliance on intermediaries. This significant publication emerges amid heightened scrutiny and mounting criticism that the Ethereum ecosystem is drifting towards centralization, potentially undermining its foundational principles.
The Trustless Imperative
The manifesto firmly asserts that trustlessness, where the correctness of a system is guaranteed solely by mathematics and consensus rather than the goodwill of centralized entities, is paramount. The authors emphasize that “Ethereum was not created to make finance efficient or apps convenient,” but rather “to set people free,” positioning decentralization as a core philosophical tenet.
The document outlines six stringent requirements for a truly decentralized design: self-sovereignty, allowing users to authorize their own actions; verifiability through public data; censorship resistance within practical timeframes; operator replaceability without requiring approval; practical accessibility beyond technical experts; and transparent incentive structures. The manifesto warns that removing any of these criteria risks a system’s “drift from protocol to platform—from neutral ground to private property.”
Additionally, the manifesto establishes three “harsh” laws prohibiting critical secrets held by single actors, indispensable intermediaries that users cannot realistically replace, and unverifiable outcomes lacking public reproducibility. These laws, while limiting what can be built easily, are presented as the sole guarantee that “what we build belongs to everyone.”
Centralization Concerns in Ethereum’s Infrastructure
Beyond theoretical frameworks, the manifesto directly addresses current centralization within Ethereum’s infrastructure. It points to hosted Remote Procedure Call (RPC) services acting as default access points, significant reliance on cloud providers like AWS, GCP, and Cloudflare creating single points of failure, and centralized sequencing prevalent in many rollups.
The document suggests that “decentralization erodes not through capture, but through convenience.” It draws parallels to the evolution of email, where the practical challenges posed by spam filters and blocklists effectively made self-hosted servers unfeasible for most users, despite the underlying protocol remaining open.
“Elite Control” and Paradigm’s Growing Influence
The release of the “Trustless Manifesto” follows recent revelations from former Geth lead developer Péter Szilágyi in May 2024. Szilágyi alleged that a small group of five to ten individuals close to Vitalik Buterin exert “complete indirect control” over Ethereum’s strategic direction through influence over attention allocation, donations, investments, and researcher assignments.
Szilágyi also highlighted an ecosystem where projects increasingly secure backing from the same insider group, rather than through public offerings, fostering a “ruling elite.” He described his own experience managing Ethereum’s primary execution client, earning just $625,000 over six years with no benefits or raises, characterizing Foundation employment as “a bad financial decision” that created “a perfect breeding ground for perverse incentives, conflicts of interests, and eventual protocol capture.”
Further concerns about centralization have been raised regarding venture capital firm Paradigm’s influence. An Ethereum core developer, known as “Fede’s intern,” cautioned that Paradigm’s presence “within Ethereum could become a relevant tail risk for the ecosystem.” Paradigm, managing $12.7 billion, has expanded its reach by hiring top researchers, funding critical open-source libraries, and launching Tempo, a competing layer-1 blockchain that secured $500 million in funding at a $5 billion valuation.
The departure of longtime Ethereum Foundation researcher Dankrad Feist to Tempo, where Paradigm co-founder Matt Huang serves as CEO, intensified these concerns. “Fede’s intern” warned that excessive corporate influence over open-source projects can cause priorities to shift away from community vision towards corporate incentives.
Looking Ahead
The “Trustless Manifesto” and the accompanying revelations from former developers and researchers highlight a critical juncture for Ethereum. As the network continues to evolve, its leaders are confronted with the ongoing challenge of upholding decentralization against the practical allure of convenience and the concentration of influence, aiming to reaffirm the network’s core ethos.
